Seven days. Four wrecks. Three dead. The numbers speak for how bad Route 24 has become – but it might have reached a low last week, according to West Bridgewater Deputy Fire Chief Paul Golder, when accidents killed three, left several hospitalized, closed the road entirely twice and reminded people why the road is often referred to as the most dangerous in the state.

“You just don’t want to see (the crashes) and for us it’s horrendous,” said Golder, a 37-year veteran of the West Bridgewater Fire Department who has responded to dozens of wrecks on Route 24 throughout his career.

Golder said a female grief counselor met with West Bridgewater firefighters at the fire station Sunday morning after they returned from the horrific crash scene. Her goal was to help firefighters unload some of the trauma they witnessed as first responders to the 4 a.m. crash Sunday, he said.

Two people were killed when several vehicles collided on Route 24 northbound near the Route 106 exit in West Bridgewater about 4 a.m., according to state police.

It was the second fatal crash on the roadway in three days and the fourth major accident in a week.

State police did not immediately identify the victims on Sunday, pending notification of next of kin. According to state police, one victim is a female in her late teens and the other is a man in his mid-40s. Both victims were in separate vehicles.

Sunday’s crash involved a truck and SUV, as well as other vehicles, and might have been a result of a vehicle traveling in the wrong direction on the highway. A medical examiner was on the scene Sunday morning.

The collision caused the truck to burst into flames, and forced the closure of the roadway for several hours. State police reopened all lanes on Route 24 by 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

The road was also closed on Thursday afternoon for several hours when a pickup truck carrying three Norton residents flipped during rush hour. That crash claimed the life of 12-year-old Angel Pina of Norton, and hospitalized Sandra Ouellette, 36, and Stephanie Rogers, 21, who were sent to Boston hospitals. Rogers, who was eight months pregnant, gave birth a to a healthy baby girl after the accident. Rogers was the only one wearing a seatbelt in that accident, according to state police.

On July 8, four people were sent to Boston and area hospitals after a three-car crash on Route 24, which happened at 1:53 a.m.

Accidents are routine on the road, averaging more than two a day from 2006 to 2008 on the 25-mile stretch of Route 24 that runs between Randolph and Berkley. Eight motorists died on Route 24 during those years.

The heavily traveled drag strip of a road, with a more than 60-year-old design is, by modern standards, an engineering disaster, some critics have argued.

Page 2 of 2 - In 2010, Jim Hadfield, transportation planning manager at the Southeast Regional Planning and Economic Development District in Taunton, said Route 24 “is not an ideal roadway.”

More than 128,000 drivers a day navigate Route 24 at its busiest point, each at his or her own peril.

Hadfield and other transportation experts have said Route 24’s danger lies in its poorly designed interchanges and shoddy road surface – and, lots of careless, distracted and otherwise irresponsible driving.

“Looking at the data, the bulk of the accidents are at the interchanges, (but) it’s a dangerous road up and down,” Hadfield told The Enterprise in 2010.

Raynham Fire Lt. Barrett Johnson said he’s been to more crashes on Route 24 than he’d like.

“We’ve been dealing with them for a long time,” said Johnson, a 15-year veteran of the Raynham Fire Department. “We’re frequently going out to the highway for accidents.”